GDC announces registration application fee introduction

The move brings registration applications in line with the regulator’s policy on fee-setting, which seeks to remove cross subsidy between registrant groups wherever practicable. It also contributed to the reduced annual retention fees (ARF), which were announced earlier this year.

Registration application fees are to be made up of two parts; a flat rate to cover processing costs, and a variable rate to cover the costs of assessing the type of application received. This variable element results in six bands of fee, depending of the complexity of the assessment (see table for details).

GDC executive director, registration and corporate services, Gurvinder Soomal said,

“One of the central principles we apply when setting and charging fees is that the levels should primarily be determined by the cost of regulating each professional group. One of the ways we do this is by minimising instances where registrants fund regulatory activity not generated by them. The introduction of this fee applies this principle to registration applications and enables us to remove this cost from the ARF.”